Strong Boy

I took this video on January 6th.  Gabe already looks older, does a better job on steps, but most of all, the dog is double in size! 

Gabe has been receiving physical therapy from Miss Bonnie, here at the house, since he was 7 weeks old.  He needed to become stronger in his core and she was great with him.  He was always pretty much on age appropriate but always at the beginning of the milestones for his age.  Since he began walking we moved our therapy sessions from weekly to monthly.  Last month Miss Bonnie worked with Gabe on going down steps since he wasn't trying it on his own on our big staircase. 

Now Gabe has gone down our staircase twice on his own.  He's doing so well and I'm not sure there's anything else to work on!  

Our baby boy is strong!

It was nice having a specialist in the house weekly to run questions by and have company.  For a while she worked with Ella as well so she was here twice a week.
 

I'll be sad when Gabe graduates which will be very soon but am thrilled he's all caught up.

Happy Birthday Lilly!

Today our baby girl Lilly turns 6.  I feel so emotional today and I'm not sure why.  Lilly is by far our most challenging little ball of fire so maybe it's because I put my heart and soul into parenting her.  Maybe it's the disbelief that we've been parents for six years.  Maybe it's the memories of her oh-so-difficult arrival.
Or maybe it's all of this wrapped neatly into one little package.

Lilly is so damn funny.  She's super spunky and awesomely ahead of her years in her thoughts and verbal responses.

"Mom, I hope you know when that lady is only nice when adults are around.  The minute you're out of sight she's so mean."
"Mom, come on now, what do you expect from a BABY?"

All she wanted for her birthday was an American Girl Doll.  Ella bought her the one she wanted.  Ella rocks!

 Meet Roozeen.

 Roozeen has her own little closet for her shoes, outfits, and accessories.  Lilly loves her doll.

 Lilly has been enjoying her out-of-town gifts as well!  Thank you Papaw, Babcia, and Mamaw!  Lilly loved her "Jesus Loves Me" bag and sheep that sings.  The boys love them too (Mamaw sent one to Ella too - so sweet!).  Thank you to all of you!!!

Oliver, 3 Months

Oliver, the most awesome dog in the world, is already 3 months old!  I feel sad that I can't carry him around anymore.  He weighs over 30 lbs and is a big hunka hunka burning love.

 Oliver is so wonderful with the children.  He does not open his mouth or play rough around the youngest three.  He does like to chase and play with Lilly.  Ella spends hours each day playing with him.  She's so gentle and caring toward him.

I made him get up like this so I could show my friend Krissy how tall he is.  Luke didn't know what to think about this interruption to his turning the lights on and off.

 Gabe and Oliver having a moment...

 When Andy comes home (and yes, he looks like a serial killer here) the boys and Oliver wait excitedly at the front door (need to use Windex STAT) for him.  It's so darn cute.

 As Andy recently said, "We really lucked out with this dog!!"  

We love him so much!!

Accident Prone

My boy is a mess.  He gets hurt all.the.time.  Luke is very brave but his injuries stress me out!  This was the second head injury of this magnitude and neither fall was impressive.  In fact, this happened two weeks ago and the knot is still there.  My poor poor baby.

 Look at his pudgy little finger...

He isn't even a risk-taker and he is pretty coordinated but just always happens to trip or fall into something just the right way.

My sweet baby boy. 

The Oldest

I told Lilly tonight while shopping as a family in BJ's that our family would be boring without her.  I meant it.  Our youngest three are fairly mild mannered and on the quiet side.  They sit nicely in shopping carts, listen pretty well, are content and happy most of the time, and are pretty darn quiet. 

Lilly is loud.  She's funny.  Lilly is wild.  She is impulsive.  Lilly is entertaining.  She is adorable.  Lilly is not easy to parent but I will tell you; life is never ever dull with her around.

A few weeks ago a Five Senses booklet came home from school.  Lilly had illustrated a beautiful cover and in the first few pages she told of hearing her dog bark and smelling her mom cook.  Then, I turned the page and read...

 Jesus Christ.
 

"Lilly!!  You can taste butt?!?!"
"Ohhhhhh, I thought that said touch, see?  I'm touching a butt!!"
"Do you realize how inappropriate that is?  Did your teacher read this book?  Oh my God, oh my God..."
"I don't know, hahahahaha, see the butt Mom?  See the butt?  Hahahahah."

When Andy got home I was waiting with the booklet.  He laughed.  The next day I'll admit I sat at the kitchen table and I laughed hysterically over it but really, it's so inappropriate!

Lilly loves to dance and sing.  She "writes" all her own music and lyrics.  She sings from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed at night.  She wants voice lessons and I'm actually considering it.

Lilly loves fashion.  She says she's a "fashionista" or a "fashion girl" or sometimes just, "I'm fashion Mom."  Just this morning after showering, blowing out my hair, and putting on make-up I said, "Lilly, how do I look?"  She took one look at my yoga pants and sweatshirt and said, "You look homeless."

I did not buy Lilly any back-to-school clothes this year.  She is still wearing mostly clothing from last year that she mix matches into different funky crazy outfits.  This is one of her favorites...

 Usually, Lilly seems much older than five.  Her vocabulary, phrasing, figures of speech, and wit are all much more advanced but every now and then I see the sweet little baby girl that first made me a mom.  She is deathly afraid of blood and goes pale as a ghost in an instant if she sees anything medical or bloody.  She fought losing her (2nd) tooth for a month.  The tooth was hanging by a string forever and she panicked every.single.day over it. 

Ack!  The nails!  This girl can play hard.

 I kept trying to get her to pull it out or let me pull it out but she'd go into a complete panic; tears and all.

 I am so happy to report that just this morning the darn tooth finally fell out.  It is safely somewhere in our house in a ziploc bag that has been misplaced...

...this girl may have made my head full of grays and I may drink an extra coke or two a day to calm my nerves, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.  She made me a mom and she keeps me laughing.  We love our spunky girl so much.

Pediatrician

Taking all the kids anywhere is getting progressively more difficult.  I'm not sure why I thought it would get easier.  The boys don't want to sit in the stroller anymore since they know what freedom tastes like.  Recently we headed to the pediatrician to check Luke's ears (and again yesterday with everyone since Lilly is sick).

They were great (not yesterday) the day I snapped these cell phone pictures.  I was waiting for the other shoe to drop...

 

 The nurses and doctors were even surprised, lol.  That's sad.  They are like family to us at this point.  I guess we're frequent flyers as we've been there 3 times in a week many times before. 

Luke was fine on this day and Lilly was negative for strep yesterday.

I love our pediatrician so much.  It's so nice to feel welcome in a place we so often visit.

Fa La La La La

 When Lilly was 9 months old I put her in Music Together with Miss Madeline.  We had a great time and I made a lot of mom friends that were very supportive and amazing as we all entered motherhood together.  I still keep in touch with most of them.  We loved crazy Miss Madeline so much we had her come to Lilly's 2nd birthday.

 

 Fast forward 3 years and I'm back in music with Miss Madeline but this time I have Ella, Luke, and Gabe.  Taking 3 kids to music is much different than 1!!  All the moms sit with their one child, dance holding their child, hug, kiss, and cradle their child.  Then there's me...  Gabe doesn't move an inch from my lap, Ella follows every direction and song perfectly, and Luke is a bit unsure but loves the balls and instruments so he waits until the time comes to use them.

Luke isn't sure how he feels about the scarves but he usually participates.

 Gabe, on my lap, frozen.

 Madeline feels like family since I had Lilly in her class for 2.5 years.  She makes me feel comfortable and all the kids love her.

 The hardest part of class is when the parents stand up and dance holding their child.  Gabe won't put weight on his feet when I try to put him down, Ella wants to be held to dance, and Luke cries on the floor until I pick him up.  Usually I end up dancing with the twins and Ella dances beside us.  Breaks my heart in two.

The instruments are the best part according to the kids.  Luke literally jumps up and down clapping when she goes to get the bins.

 My three babies enjoying music...

Lilly wants to go so badly.  She's in school during the class but the next time she's off from school on a Wednesday, I promised her she could go with us. Madeline adores Lilly and is dying to see her.

It's not easy taking all three kids but it's so nice to get out and watch them interact with other children.  These three are all fairly quiet and reserved and I can see as the weeks pass by that they are slowly but surely coming out of their shells (except Gabe!).

Slacking...

I wish I'd been sleeping the last two weeks away...

...no, not really.  But time sure does fly!  The reason for my lack of blogging is technical difficulties!  My camera had a glitch so I took pictures with my phone and then my phone refused to send the pictures to my email.  This picture went through so fingers crossed I'll have a week of phone pic blogs coming up soon...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Catch Me If You Can!